Fix county charter, now

Our opinion: Albany County lawmakers need to fix the county charter and clean up the mess of laws and commissions they’ve made over the years — now.

When Albany County’s own Charter Review Commission calls the county charter “a poorly organized, difficult to read, ramshackle mess,” it’s time to knuckle down and make some changes.

Earlier this week, Times Union reporter Alysia Santo described a “needle-in-a-haystack” approach to organizing laws. The commission found that Albany County, unlike other counties, doesn’t keep all its laws and ordinances in one place, like an Administrative Code.

The commission said it was “stunned” that the County Legislature and county attorney, “both acting in perfect good faith, were unable to agree upon a single, accurate and complete version of the charter.”

That’s right — Albany County seemingly proves “chaos theory,” a scientific theory referring to an apparent lack of order in a system that nevertheless obeys particular laws or rules. Somehow, people living and working in Albany County mostly follow the law, even if experts can’t agree what those laws may be.

But there’s more. The county doesn’t know which commissions established by the Legislature exist. The Legislature last year updated its human rights law even though the commission that is the law’s enforcement arm hasn’t met in a decade. The erstwhile chairman of the ethics commission said he wasn’t sure “why anyone would have thought we still existed.” His term expired in 2012.

Issues like these are why the Charter Review Commission in January recommended a wholesale rewrite of the charter, rather than minor tweaks. Its report also called for reducing the size of the Legislature by 14 members, from 39 to 25.

Yet, almost two months later, the Legislature has yet to formally review the document. Legislature Chairman Shawn Morse instead has announced plans to hire a part-time attorney and administrative assistant to “streamline our operations.”

That’s a waste of money. Worse, it looks suspiciously like using patronage jobs to avoid meaningful reform.

The Legislature needs to systematically review the Charter Review Commission’s work. And, as the League of Women Voters suggested last month, it should put fixes to the charter on this November’s ballot.

Politicians often run on vague promises to fix a government that’s vaguely broken. For once, county lawmakers know exactly what’s broken. Now it’s time to say how they intend to fix it, and then let voters decide.

2 Responses

Excellent ideas. C’mon, County Legislature, let’s make it happen. A disorganized mess – really? This is what we’re paying for? You created the mess, you clean it up – without spending another dime (i.e., Morse’s idea is bad). And then do what’s right and cut your number to 25 (or, preferably, less – less is more).